Hoppity

Source: Hello from Essex, UK

Ronin and StarSapling ............... Yes, Chesterfield! Nothing is TOO far, I will google East Mdland Star Gazers. Thank you both so very much for your advice about the telescope. Being so naive, I am at risk of spending too much on something too big and complicated for me. You have reined me in and I thank you fo it :-) It will be a few months yet before I actually purchase the equipment, but I will be sure to seek your advice further. Like I said previously, I am a 62 yr old female who has been into all things Space from a very young age. I can't get enough of it. We plan to move to Ireland in about 12 months time to really enjoy our retirements. The night skies over there should be good and dark! This is the time I will buy the telescope. We plan to build as far as is practical, a kind of obsevatory but again, I have to really research this and decide if ths is necessary, it may not be? I am just so very excited about the whole thing, but I will take my time, take good advice and not go overboard on the first thing that I see. Your help is invaluable to me, thank you very vey much. As for my very first space photo (on my iPhone) of the ISS, it's a tiny tiny dot, but I am chuffed with it, it's a start!!!! My start! But looking at eveything on here, I have an awful lot to learn and an awful lot to see out there. As for being an Astronaut, I am hoping that in my lifetime, I will be able to go up in one of the space travel vehicles! I can dream. xx

Hello everyone, I am very new, very green but have been interested in all things Space since I was a child. I wanted to be an Astronaut........ Now 62, female and retired, I am planning to purchase my very first telescope..! I discovered SGL today whilst surfing the net for the best dark skies in which to view the Milky Way. I have a bucket list, containing things like, viewing the Aurora Borealis, takings photos of the Planets, lying under the sky to watch the meteor showers Perseides and Leonids. Things of that nature. I have seen many images this evening and am in awe of you all, they are amazing and I am so excited about turning my lifelong interest into a full blown hobby! I have watched by way of notification from NASA's SpottheStation, the International Space Station fly over the UK on many nights this year, I am still in awe of that! How wondrous is our Universe, how compelling and how incomprehensible so much of it is! My I have a lot to learn. If anyone is interested, I will try to keep my new little blog updated. I would very much appreciate any advice on a first, but good, telescope, I don't know how much they really are but I am looking to spend between £1,000-£2,000. I need to be able to find things easily! If that is possible. Any help would be gratefully received. Any charts, books or maps I need that would help me? Thank you so much. Nice talking to you. :-). PS my very first 'space' photo, it's the ISS just taken on my iPhone! The itsy bitsy dot.